Winter Gouda!

Good day everyone!

I hope you are all staying warm and enjoying the cooler weather. There's nothing better than getting all bundled up in your favorite jacket with a soft scarf, or is that just me? Haha.

Today I wanted to talk about a fun cheese that we recently got into the stores - the Melkbus 125 Winter Gouda.

Cheese: Melkbus 125 Winter Gouda
Producers: Best Cheese Corp
Location: Holland
Milk: Raw cow's milk
Rennet: Traditional (animal)

The Winter Gouda is considered a "Boerenkaas" or a farmhouse gouda that is produced on an individual family farm. The 125 in the name of this cheese is the farm's identifying number which traditionally could be found on all of the milk cans belonging to that farm. In this particular Gouda, fun winter spices are added... there is pepper, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and cardamom. So tasty! I've honestly never tried a cheese like this before. It is aged for only four months, so the paste is still soft and super lactic, which really allows the winter spices to shine. It's like Christmas in your mouth!

I passed this cheese around at work today and it was a huge hit! I asked everyone what they would do with this cheese and some ideas were to mix it into a fondue, melt it on a sausage sandwich, use it to stuff a chicken or turkey breast, eat it with pears, melt it into an apple galette or just feature it as a fun cheese on their cheese plate. There are myriad ways of using this cheese and I really haven't seen a comparable cheese to this one before. Many holiday beers have some fun spices like the ones in this cheese, so those might be a fun pairing, or perhaps some mulled wine if you're really into the winter spices.

All of the Whole Foods cheese counters in the Northern California region are carrying this cheese right now, so swing on by and ask for a sample. As this is a seasonal cheese it won't be around forever, so don't miss out!

Until next time, eat, drink and be happy!!